Welcome
to Alaska, whales! Everyone in Kodiak is excited to see
the first arrivals, who were spotted April 1 in Kodiak waters
(#12 on map). More whales are coming; a
whale-watch boat captain in Newport, Oregon (#9) said "It's
an Interstate out here!" Oregon’s Whale
Watching Center is seeing
a steady stream of whales headed north to the
Arctic. On March 29 they counted 56 whales!

At
the other end of the migration trail, babies and moms are still
entertaining lucky whale watchers. Don't miss Carolina's
heartwarming stories from Laguna San Ignacio (#2 on map). Whale
traffic has slowed at both official counting stations
(#5 and #6) on the California coast. Still, they're seeing fun
things like bubble
blasts. Michael at Gray Whales Count (#6) saw a mom paddling
on her back with junior bobbing and spyhopping alongside!

Spring training
has moms and babies busy in the lagoons, and whale watchers
are getting ready for the next phase of the migration. Wayne
Perryman is
the government's leading expert on gray whale moms and babies.
He has begun his yearly calf count at Pt. Piedras Blancas, CA
(#7). See all their stories and photos:

Wouldn't
you just love to touch a friendly gray whale? What
kind of rules must whale watchers obey in the lagoons? Think about
rules
YOU might
make. Then have a look at an actual sign in Laguna Ojo de Liebre.

Read
the rules and see if you can figure out why each rule is important.

Gray
whales were once nearly wiped out by whale hunters. They went to
the
lagoons where they found grays in huge numbers. Whale
guide Carolina at San Ignacio Lagoon says, "Here’s one
of my random thoughts: what if the whales' perception of us is that
we are
sea monsters
(consider
whaling),
and they are taming us?"

What
are the whales' possible intentions in approaching human visitors
to the lagoons?

To
help you with this week's data questions, review
the order in which gray whales migrate north. What
do you notice? Who is first? Who travels with whom? Why do you think
some travel
alone? Together? Why do whales travel in a certain order?

Tracking
the Migration: Does Data Tell a Story?

Think
about the order in which gray whales migrate. Then
let's check the daily whale counts at our two California counting stations
to see
if there's a story in the data.

Which
whales are Californians seeing?

Do
the latest numbers show any pulses (surges in
numbers), or any lulls (slow-down
in numbers)?

For
the third week in a row, there's more good news for Laguna San Ignacio!
The Mexican government has
just donated 109,000 acres of federal lands surrounding this spectacular
whale habitat for conservation. This fantastic decision
may well be the nail in the coffin of a decade-old Mitsubishi plan to
build the world’s largest industrial saltworks on the shores of
the most pristine whale sanctuary remaining. More... >>